The present invention relates generally to emergency communication systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems, methods and devices for communicating emergency information associated with one or more individuals. Still more specifically, the present invention relates to systems, methods and devices for communicating emergency medical information to emergency response operators, emergency medical technicians and physicians by using a medical data base and unique identifier communicated over a communications network. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system for communicating emergency information, such as medical information for medical assistance, for one or more subscribers wherein the subscriber(s) can enable access to their medical data base through any communications device identified with one or more subscribers. Emergency personnel can then retrieve all medical records associated with a particular communications device enabling the emergency personnel to have all possible records no matter how many persons are of an identified group in need of assistance.
The Bureau of Census, 1995 Report lists that 21 Million households are composed of Americans of 65 years of age or older. Based on information from the 1997 Statistical Abstract of the United States, in 1996 Americans paid ninety-six million visits to seek treatment in the nations"" emergency rooms. Of those, three hundred thousand were dead on arrival or died in the emergency room, thirteen million were admitted to the general hospital or to intensive and critical care units of the hospital and thirty-eight million individuals required referral to a physician for further treatment. There are nearly seven million automobile accidents in the U.S. each year causing forty thousand deaths and three million injuries. Seven hundred fifty thousand Americans die annually of heart disease and seven hundred thousand males and five hundred thousand females between the ages of 45 years to 65 years who are admitted to hospitals are newly diagnosed with heart problems. Twenty-eight million Americans are diagnosed with high blood pressure, which is the leading cause of strokes and disability. Nine million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, an estimated six million Americans are undiagnosed, and all have the risk of episodic hypoglycemia and severe life-threatening complications.
In many circumstances emergency medical personnel are confronted with critically ill individuals who are unable to communicate essential information. Such information includes pre-existing conditions, prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, allergies, etc. When available, this simple medical history can provide emergency medical personnel with a critical life saving edge.
The ability to disseminate an individual""s current medical history information to a plurality of unrelated medical care providers with limited delay is of particular value. Most physicians, hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies have computer data base systems that contain patient medical histories. However, these systems are generally not connected to one another. This lack of information sharing between unrelated and sometimes competitive health care providers creates a situation that compromises the health of individuals in medical emergencies.
The lack of information available to emergency medical personnel also delays treatment and increases the cost of medical care. Ignorance of a patient""s medical history creates the necessity for physicians to perform laboratory and diagnostic tests on a high-cost immediate basis, and can delay the diagnosis and treatment of an individual in medical distress. Because the physician is required to guess the patient""s history, there is a high probability that redundant testing will be performed. The availability of an individual""s medical information, even if the individual has no previous medical problems, can provide emergency physicians with an enhanced ability to accurately diagnose and treat that individual on a timely and cost-effective basis.
Current emergency response systems provide no caller-specific emergency medical information to emergency response personnel. An advanced metropolitan 911 system, for example, might operate as follows: A distressed individual dials 911 from a home telephone. The call is routed over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to the 911 Trunk. At a Public Service Answering Point (PSAP), the call is answered by an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). The ACD routes the call to the first available 911 operator and then queries a telephone company data base for automatic number identification (ANI) and automatic location information (ALI). The operator determines the nature of the emergency, dispatching appropriate emergency response teams (fire, ambulance, etc.) to the scene.
While the ANI and ALI information can be helpful to emergency response personnel, it is often incomplete. The ANI/ALI data bases cannot specifically identify the person making the call (it may be a guest or any member of a household), much less provide useful medical information. In addition, the ANI/ALI data base may not be able to provide any information for mobile phone users, especially those roaming out of region. In non-urban regions (which include most of the geographic area of the United States), the ANI/ALI data base and call-handling equipment is frequently not available, and emergency calls are routed without caller information directly to state or county law enforcement authorities or private emergency service providers.
Thus there is a need to provide emergency medical data to emergency response personnel on a real time basis, over a wide geographic area and through a multiplicity of technologies. Several attempts to provide real time emergency medical information have been made. These attempts range from simple and limited body-tagging (the EM bracelet or medical card, for example), to relatively sophisticated systems involving telecommunications technology. To date, however, no such system has been able to provide comprehensive medical information through a variety of telecommunication technologies, over an extensive geographic area, in a fast and secure manner.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information on a real time basis.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency medical information from any one of a plurality of communications devices.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information for a selected subscriber by identifying that subscriber by any associated communications device and/or an access code associated with the subscriber.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information for a group of individuals and selected individuals of the group by use of associated communications devices and/or security codes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information for an individual from at least one of the communications media of a telephone, a pager, a computer and a dedicated communications device.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for providing emergency information for a group of individuals in a living or business unit or traveling together in a group, such as by car or other transport medium, by associating a communications device number (such as a telephone number, cellular number or computer) with the emergency information of all persons of the group.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information that is independent of the record keeping formats and restrictions of different medical care providers.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information to care providers as quickly as current emergency response communication technology will allow.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the provision of emergency information in a manner that limits the actions and time necessary for such communication by the person in distress.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for the automatic communication of the location of an emergency to care providers.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices to keep emergency information up to date.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device to allow users to contact emergency response systems within wide geographic regions and through a variety of technologies.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide improved systems, methods and devices for conveying non-emergency information stored in a data base over a wireless telecommunications system.
The features of the present invention that are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may be best understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein.